Weather station systems

[rotorspeed]

Anyone know any suppliers of equipment (and rough cost) that can be used to measure particularly cloudbase and visibility at a heli site in UK?

[Droopy]

Try vaisala though I think they're quite expensive, certainly into 5 figures.

[MightyGem]

We had a Vaisala cloudbase reader installed for around £14500(2000 prices). It works very well and we wouldn't be without it on dark and rainy nights.

[sycamore]

Or, you could do it on the cheap...
Buy a large Maglite, or one of those "x" mill. candlepower torches, take a glass of wine ,red or white, dig a small hole, put torch in hole pointing skyward, balance glass of wine on lens to make sure torch is vertical. Drink wine and refill, fill hole with sand to keep torch upright; drink wine, hic..., and measure off 100 yards/ feet/ convenient known distance, if you can in a straight line!!

If the light shines on the clouds, that`s good( at night), and from your known measuring spot you can measure the cloudbase
by trig, etc, etc ! If it`s too difficult , have another tipple, pull up torch and use said hole for putting practice....hic..hic....!!

[rotorspeed]

Thanks MightyGem. Seems like this Vaisala kit is the thing to get. What other parameters do you have - presumably vis as well?